Before the recession, the ranks of home-school students had been growing by an estimated 8 percent annually; the latest federal figures, from 2007, calculate the total at about 1.5 million.

While some families are giving up because of a stay-at-home parent's need to get a job, the recession overall will likely be a further boost to home-schooling, according to parents and educators interviewed by The Associated Press.

'We're going to see continued growth," said Brian Ray, president of the National Home Education Research Institute in Salem, Oregon. "The reasons parents home-educate are not passing, faddish things."...